A frenzied series of reports from the field of battle that was the West Coast waterfronts 90 years ago this week. San Francisco’s ‘Bloody Thursday,’ where police murdered striking longshore workers, galvanized the class. Workers took matters into their own hands, with sympathy strikes breaking out and the labor bureaucracy, unable to stem the tide, forced to call a general strike.

‘Shoot to Kill is Order in Dock Strike’ from the Daily Worker. Vol. 11 No. 162. July 11, 1934.

Troops Arrested for Supporting Strike

(Special to the Daily Worker) SAN FRANCISCO. Two of the workers killed by the police in yesterday’s attack upon the striking marine workers included George Coundourakis, a functionary of the Communist Party and member of the A. F. of L. Cooks and Waiters Union; Howard S. Perry, member of the International Seamen’s Union. In addition, one worker was killed in Almeda, and four more workers were reported dead, but as yet the reports have been unconfirmed. Additional hundreds have been wounded, many not listed officially dead.

As 1,700 National Guardsmen were mobilized for action, two members of the National Guard made speeches in the Armory, appealing to the National Guardsmen not to report for duty on the strike front. They and their supporters were immediately placed under arrest. Unrest is rife among the troopers who are reluctant to go into action against workers. In San Jose, groups of workers met National Guardsmen arriving from Gilroy and other farm sections and tried to pull them off trucks. O’Rourke, Communist candidate for supervisor of San Jose, and others were jailed for participation.

Machine guns are now on the roofs of the buildings facing the docks. Until 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, only four trucks were able, under police guard, to leave the docks to deliver to warehouses three blocks away. No deliveries were made to the rest of the city. Twenty locals of the A. F. of L. in the San Francisco bay area have already voted for a general strike. The Oakland Building Trades Council voted a general strike on the condition that agreement is made by the Central Labor Council.

The Teamsters local met last night in a demonstration against the labor faker Casey who tried to prevent further action. The men forced through a special meeting for Sunday at which a general strike vote will be taken.

Large delegations of workers will attend the meeting of the Central Labor Council tonight to demand an immediate general strike.

In an attempt to offset the savage police terror against which the entire working class here is being aroused, stories are circulated that a floral shop owned by Mayor Rossi was wrecked by strikers. It is also for the same purpose said that strikes were responsible for the explosion in the DuBoce Municipal Railway Tunnel.

Anti-Communist agitation is being intensified with the press, the mayor, the governor, and Ryan making speeches against the Communist Party. A group of militant longshoremen today asked that this message be conveyed to the Atlantic coast workers: “If Ryan stands in the way of the sympathy strikes on the Atlantic Coast, the rank and file should follow the example of San Francisco workers-kick Ryan out and call the strikes.”

SAN FRANCISCO, July 6. Troops have arrived at the docks. Machine guns have been set up. The reign of terror has increased all along the waterfront.

Col. Mittelstaedt, in command of the troops, threatened soldiers with a general court-martial if they failed to shoot to kill. But the workers of San Francisco have intimated that they are not going to take it lying down. The strike still continues. All signs point to the general strike.

The teamsters union is to vote on general strike Sunday.

Strike sentiment mounts among municipal employees.

Workers on the private street railways are considering a walkout in support of the maritime workers.

In all unions the question of the general strike is the order of the day.

Meanwhile the Roosevelt Board is attempting to get the men to arbitrate.

Strikers Refuse to Arbitrate

The strikers, who refused to arbitrate before the troops were called, refused to arbitrate under the guns of the National Guard.

Leaders of the San Francisco Labor Council were doing everything in their power to halt the general strike. Time and time again John O’Connell, secretary of the Council has stated his opposition to any strike movement in support of the marine workers.

There will be a meeting of the Council tonight and the question of the general strike will be brought up on the floor.

O’Connell intimated that he will attempt to sidetrack the movement. “The air is full of general strike talk,” O’Connell admitted, “and the matter undoubtedly will be brought up.”

He then revealed how the Council would try to halt the general strike.

“Any action, however, will be for the individual unions to take,” he said. “The Council by very definite rules of the American Federation of Labor cannot order anyone out.”

It is clear that the Labor Council fakers will not support the general strike movement. But the individual unions under the pressure of the rank and file are ready for the action.

Militia patrolled all sections of the waterfront today.

Machine Guns Set Up

Machine guns were placed on top of pier 38. Another gun was placed in front of the Matson Navigation Company. Fifteen soldiers guarded every pier.

Three machine guns bristled from the second floor of the State Terminal Building commanding a large area of the water front. Another was set up at King Street and the Embarcadero.

Major General David P. Barrows, commander of the bloodthirsty expedition, set himself up in Oakland across the bay from the Frisco waterfront.

Sensing there is a movement afoot among the soldiers not to shoot their brother workmen, Colonel Mittelstaedt, in command of the troops in Frisco, threatened to court-martial any soldier who failed to shoot to kill.

“Any man who fires a shot into the air will be court-martialed.” the bloodthirsty Colonel told the troops. “Shoot to kill.”

Strike Brews in South HOUSTON, Tex., July 6. Houston, Galveston and other gulf ports faced another dock strike as longshoremen discussed the question of striking in sympathy with the west coast men.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 6. National Guard troops moved into the waterfront area late yesterday in the wake of the bloody police attack against striking maritime workers in which three were killed by gunfire and 115 were reported injured and wounded.

The troops are under the command of Major General David P. Barrow, University of California professor, recently in Germany at Hitler’s expense, who is now an agitator for favors for the Nazis.

The order for the movement of troops were given by Governor Merriam. Immediately 1,750 war equipped soldiers moved to the city and those around the bay.

“We have 4,000 additional men to back us up if necessary, and if that is not enough we will call the national army, the navy and marine corps,” snapped Colonel R. E. Mittelstaedt, commander of the 250th Coast Artillery.

To answer the bloody terror labor unions were discussing the question of calling a general strike in the entire Frisco Bay area.

“We are not going to retreat from the waterfront,” Ralph Mallen of the International Longshoremen’s Association publicity committee declared. “We are going ahead and expect to obtain plenty of help from all other unions toward a general strike.”

Plan General Strike

It is very likely that a general strike will be declared over the head of the Central Labor Council, which is doing its utmost to halt the movement.

All day yesterday police attacked strikers unmercifully with gunfire and gas bombs. The most savage attack took place in front of the I.L.A. headquarters. It was here that the two men were killed and most of the strikers were wounded. Gutters Flowed with Blood Gutters in front of the hall flowed with blood as police fired shotguns, pistols, tear and nausea gas. Bullets struck buildings and walls and ripped through street-cars. Strikers defended themselves heroically against the withering fire with cobblestones torn from the streets.

Police took up positions behind telephone poles and fired into the huge throng until their guns were empty. They reloaded and fired again and again. Men fell like ten pins.

One cop stood at the intersection of two streets, firing his shotgun into the ranks of the strikers as if he were shooting clay pigeons. He emptied his shotgun and then proceeded to empty his pistol.

Those killed by the police fire were Howard Sperry, 49, a striking longshoreman; George Counequrakis, member of the International Labor Defense and Clayton Minor, 27, a striker from Alameda.

Strikers and non-strikers alike fell victims of the police guns and the gas. Mrs. Josephine Fuetes was shot in the head when a bullet from a policeman’s gun crashed through a street-car window. The police attack spread along the entire waterfront. Ferry boat passengers were gassed as they came from the Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street.

Hospitals Filled

Emergency hospitals all night crowded with victims of the terror. Mothers and wives of the wounded stood before the doors of the hospitals awaiting word of their condition.

Ryan Stands with Bosses

Joseph P. Ryan, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, sided with the government, shipowners and army officers in a verbal attack against the militant strike committee and the Communists. Attempting to point out that the men are not striking for wage increases, but merely for a different system of hiring, Ryan blamed the rank and file strike leaders for a failure to settle the strike and not the shipowners, backed by police and the National Guard, who are really the ones standing in the way of settlement.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n165-jul-11-1934-DW-LOC.pdf